The Dota 2 Battle Pass is practically a DLC offered by Valve Corporation to its Dota 2 community at least once per year. This usually happens several months before the start of The International, which is the Dota 2 world championship.
Because 25% of the Battle Pass proceeds go to the prize pool of The International, players usually invest in this DLC a significant amount of money. Millions buy it and then buy additional levels to get to the best Dota 2 skins and Arcanas.
How the Dota 2 Battle Pass Works
The Battle Pass allows you to do weekly missions and level them up by gaining battle points. This happens whenever you win a match or complete a mission, which can be anything related to the hero you are playing or something more general, such as dealing X amount of damage in one game.
You gain Dota 2 treasures as you earn Battle Pass points and level up your Battle Pass. You might be offered an immortal treasure or some other type of battle chest at specific levels. The most epic rewards are Personas and Arcanas.
A Persona is a different personality for a given Dota 2 hero. That hero maintains all his attributes and abilities, but his character changes completely. For example, Phantom Assassin is a female, and the hero’s Persona allows you to play as a male. For Anti-Mage it’s the exact opposite.
Arcanas are highly valuable Dota 2 skins that change not only the visual aspect of the hero but also one of his abilities and even items. The voice often gets changed, and the whole design is greatly enhanced in every possible way.
Arcanas usually cost $100+, but they’re worth the price if you’re a big fan of the game and spend thousands of hours in it.
The Dota 2 Battle Pass usually costs $9.99 if you want to start at level 1. But you can also purchase more expensive versions that start at higher levels.
What the Battle Pass Contains
The Battle Pass contains many features that improve your Dota 2 experience in more than one way. Apart from giving you the chance to do daily and weekly quests to gain rewards and levels, you also get the possibility to enjoy a unique music pack, emoticons, chat wheel sounds, and much more. A nearly complete list can be found below:
- Weekly quests
- The Cavern Crawl game mode
- A music pack
- Double Down tokens
- Loading screens
- Custom courier, hud, wards, and towers
- 2 immortal treasure chests
- Fantasy points and predictions
- Stickers
- Immortal items
- Taunts
- Sprays
- Emoticons
- 2 standard treasure chests
- Unique chat wheel sounds and voice lines
- River vials
- Seasonal item effects
The 2022 Battle Pass
The 2022 Battle Pass has been regarded as a disappointment. The Dota 2 community did not like that it reused some of the features already introduced by previous Battle Passes and was released in two stages.
Since the teams get 25% of only the first-stage sales, Valve was perceived as being a bit too greedy. Many wouldn’t have noticed the changes at the end of a successful Dota Pro Circuit. But this DPC was a complete mess.
The first Major got canceled, the other two had tiny prize pools, and there was almost no action at all that could get players excited. It felt as though Valve had abandoned the project but was not ready yet to tell its community.
As a game, Dota 2 is certainly not dying. Its player base is around 8 million, and the average number of concurrent players is around 460,000. That’s not bad for a MOBA released around 10 years ago.
People worldwide love this game, and every one of them wants to see Dota 2 thrive. But Valve isn’t doing much to help it thrive, despite the criticism.
Soon after the 2022 Battle Pass release, an update was released to change certain things about its level-up system. Players complained that the Arcanas could be obtained only at ridiculously high levels and that not enough battle points were given for completing missions and winning matches.
Dota 2 Battle Pass – Bonus
Among other things, the first Bonus Week Battle Chest became available at 2 stars instead of 3 stars, and the number of battle points received by players increased. Even so, to earn battle points and reach high levels, you need to play many matches, both during bonus and non-bonus weeks.
Overall, there’s a feeling that fewer points are given to players than in previous years and that there’s a lack of new features that offer something of value.
It remains to be seen what Valve will offer in the second half of the Battle Pass, but it’s quite likely that only a small percentage of the community will buy it. So far, the community feedback has been negative and even though the BP itself is not terrible, it’s much worse than what we got in previous years.
The numbers speak for themselves. In 2021, the prize pool of The International was $40 million. This year, it will likely be less than $15 million. It’s still a large amount, but compared to the past triumphs registered by Valve’s marketing team, it’s a failure.
